Short Stories for Pride Month 2019
by Fiction is the Truth
Summary: Collection of short stories for pride month. Multi-fandom, multiple ships. Different AUs every day. Each story will have somewhat of a summary. Hope you enjoy. Each chapter is stand-alone. PJO, MCGA, HP, SoC, TLC, Carry on, and SW. I am now taking tentative requests, see chapter 4 for more details and criteria.
1. Paranormal Investigations and Solutions

**IM BAAAAACK. This is pretty short, but I'm doing a challenge where I will write one short story for every day of June for Pride Month. I will do my best to post something every day, but they probably won't be amazing as they will not be edited. Fandoms will vary, but this is going under PJO/MCGA as that's what most of the stories will be from, but other than that will include, the WaterFire Saga, Harry Potter, Six of Crows, The Lunar Chronicles, Carry On, and Star Wars. I'm very neutral on ships, so please don't criticize my choices or request anything, as I already have everything planned.**

**A/N: all my other stories: all bets are off and I don't plan on continuing my oneshot series because I've had very little writing motivation for a while now.**

**Disclaimer: saying this once, I don't own the characters, just the situations I've come up with.**

**(PJO)**

**In which Will and Nico are a tired doctor and detective respectively.**

* * *

Will rubs his hand tiredly over his face as he sets the file on his desk. _Reassignment. _This is the sign. He's officially lost control over his life. He's a _doctor_, for goodness sakes, he's not supposed to be in the investigation division. But nooo, one of the higher ups apparently had seen it fit to have him moved into the detective department of _Paranormal Investigations And Solutions _and out of his comfy infirmary where he could yell at the stupid idiots who thought it was a good idea to go looking for the Elder Fae armed with _salt._ For minor faerie, perhaps it would work, but to ensure the Elder Fae didn't just rip off a limb immediately, you needed _at least_ an iron sword, or bullets.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do," Will mumbles into his desk, "there is literally nothing that I could do for investigation."

"You'll be fine," Lou Ellen says cheerfully. She was one of the idiots who thought salt with magic would on the Elder Fae, but hey, she'd at least taken an iron dagger with her and had only lost a hand this time. _Last time though…_ "I'm sure there's something they need you for."

* * *

It turned out there indeed _was_ something investigation needed him for. Nico di Angelo, one of the lead detectives, had met him at the door and was debriefing him on the situation. Nico di Angelo, unfortunately, was another one of those idiots, except he frequently overexerted himself while tracking down the ghosts of people who died in events involved with the paranormal, rather than the Elder Fae and salt.

In fact, Will notices, he was flickering slightly, his form temporarily becoming insubstantial for a few seconds at a time. Will sighs resignedly, and crumples up a piece of paper. Even more unfortunately, he'd been dealing with Nico di Angelo's particular brand of idiocy since the day he'd saw it fit to befriend the other boy in high school.

Will throws the wad of paper at Nico, and it passes right through the man's chest.

"So our problem lies in wha—hey! What was that for?" His ball of paper cuts Nico off right in the middle of his explanation.

"You're overworking yourself. Again. I've told you this how many times and you still don't listen to me? You'll never be able to accurately do _anything_, unless you _stop for at least five minutes."_ He exhales, frustrated. Nico is no good at knowing when to take a break in anything, let alone an ongoing investigation. "At this rate we'll never get anywhere with this."

Nico squints at him, the dark circles under his eyes becoming even more pronounced."Do you even know what's going on here?" he says, in favor of ignoring Will's more important question.

Will rolls his eyes. That was a surprisingly quick return to their old style of banter for not interacting for three months. He supposed that should be a good thing, when really, it is the exact opposite.

"What I'm doing here? No freaking idea. What's going on with the investigation? There's a bunch of people that are being killed by some sort of monster. Other than that, no. Why don't you ask the ghosts of the people who died?"

"Because there aren't any!" Nico turns to a nearby desk and starts furiously rifling through a file folder lying on top.

"We have no idea what's going on! Other than people are dying mysterious, bloody deaths, and for some inexplicable reason, their ghosts are no longer on this earth!" he finishes a bit hysterically, apparently not finding anything in the folder, because it returns to the desk.

"That's—certainly strange." Will's never heard of something like this happening ever.

"Yeah," Nico agrees, "that's why Director Chiron wanted you to work with me. He's hoping you can figure out what is killing the people, because we haven't been able too. Also, have you been avoiding me? I feel like we haven't spoken in months."

"No," Will lies through his teeth, "Anyways, I'm not looking at anything tonight. Or doing anything related to this," he glances at the clock, and it's certainly late enough to leave for the day, "If you want, we could go to my appartement, to watch movies and catch up?"

_Why. Why did you say that. There was literally no reason to say that. This will end badly._

Nico blinks, startled. "That—that'd be great. Also I'm broke, so you better hope you have popcorn, because I'm not buying any."

"Why are you broke? I thought you're paid like - a lot for this type of thing."

"I am I guess," Nico shrugs and smiles slightly at him, and okay, Will'd like to go die now. "I blew off most of my last paycheck with stuff to prank Jason and Percy with."

"I've known you for over 10 years and will never understand your prank war with those two."

"Be glad Valdez isn't involved this time, I think he's too busy setting stuff on fire."

"That sounds scarily accurate."

As they exit the doors of _Paranormal Investigations and Solutions,_ Will takes a moment to get the pounding in his chest to stop. Because heading into a case that will definitely end up being complicated, is no time to fall back in love with your best friend. Again.

* * *

The case ends a bit of a mess, because once they've got all the details which mainly just involve Will being able to take a look at the bodies and nagging Lou Ellen for obscure monsters, the trail seems to take off.

That lead however went nowhere, and their investigation collides with Piper McLean and Percy Jackson's, and eventually they figure out that the trail leads to a dark sorceress who goes by the name Medea.

Somehow, movie nights with Nico become a regular thing, which was relatively peaceful until Piper literally crashed onto his fire escape screeching "SHE'S AT MACY'S" over and over again. Will has no idea why or how a sorceress managed to build a lair _under _Macy's department store, and accessible _using the store's public elevators, _but that's sorceresses for you.

Using some sort runic array, Medea'd managed to trap the souls in a sort of limbo, that she'd been planning to use to test her potions on, because somehow she'd managed to get the ghosts partly corporeal. Will has no desire to know what would need to harm ghosts, who can only very mildly affect the living world, other than that it's bad and probably worse on humans.

After that discovery, both cases wrap up fairly quickly with relatively good turnout, and the ghosts are able to say goodbye to their families before moving on, though a young girl is very determined to stay until her younger (living) brother also goes, which will be an interesting relationship for the family, as one of the potions Medea used on her spirit have rendered her mostly corporeal and visible.

Will still thinks his ending was better, as one movie night, as the opening credits rolled, Nico leaned over and kissed him.

He's really psyched about that. What he's less psyched about however, is the fact that Piper and Percy and Jason (and _Lou Ellen_, _how did that happen?_) were betting on when he and Nico'd get together, because apparently, it was _obvious._ That's a lie. If it was obvious, Will would have made a move sooner… probably.


	2. Pink and Green Cupcakes

**DAY TWO: I love these two okay, sorry I didn't get the other characters much or any screen time. Please review with your thoughts.**

**fyi: this is supposed to be a modern magic/fantasy au but I think that was accidentally left out.**

**(MCGA)**

**In which Magnus and Alex are roommates and there are cupcakes.**

* * *

Magnus glanced at his phone, double checking to see if he had the address right. Sure enough, _19 - D _ is etched into the small brass plate hanging on the door. He hefted his backpack further up on his shoulder and was readying himself to knock when his phone rang.

He fumbled for a minute, searching his pockets for his phone, before picking up, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"What is it? I'm kinda in the middle of something right now, can I call you back?"

"Magnus!" His mom's voice echoed from the phone and he gave a jolt, not expecting to have heard from her.

"Mom!" Magnus couldn't help but smile, "I thought you were still getting all checked out of the hospital today?"

"We're all done! Fredrick and Annabeth have gotten me mostly settled into the new appartement, but they'll be by the next few days to help unpack."

"Alright, but be careful on your back and don't do too much." Over winter break, Magnus had been staying with his mom when a fire broke out. He'd managed to get out the fire escape when a beam fell and trapped his mom inside. Luckily the fire department had shown up on the scene moments later and rescued his mom, but the falling beam had broken of her back.

"I'm not doing _anything!_ Fredrick and Annabeth aren't letting me do any of it, the most I did was carry some blankets."

"Good, it should stay that way."

His mom laughed. "I know, honey, I just feel useless. Aren't you moving today too?"

"Yeah, with Sam's half-brother. Sister. Something like that. I've never met them, but Sam says we'll get on like a house on fire." He winced, "That probably wasn't the best analogy."

"It's alright. Listen, I'll let you go for now, but call me when you get settled?"

"Will do, love you Mom,"

"Love you too Magnus, bye."

"Bye."

He was starting to knock on the door when he was interrupted for the _second_ time by quick, _heavy,_ footsteps coming up the stairs, and had to do a double take when a cheetah burst out of the stairwell and skidded to a stop in front of him, shifting into a short, green haired person wearing a hot pink sweater vest with a shirt the same.

Being a being of supreme intelligence that he was, Magnus opened his mouth and went, "Uhhh,"

"_What,"_ the cheetah-person snapped, "_Are you doing in front of my door?"_

"Your front door!?"

"Yes, now move or explain yourself or I will move _you."_

"You're Alex, right?" Magnus scrambled for words while his brain still went ohmygodthatdudesacheetahohmygod. "Alex Fierro? Sam's half-brother?" The-person-who-was-probably-Alex's frown deepened, "I'm Magnus Chase, nice to meet you. Apparently I'm supposed to move in with you today?"

Probably-Alex rolled his eyes. "The things I do for my sister. You're the guy who had the fire and all your stuff is in that backpack?"

Magnus nodded.

"Cool." Alex slipped around him and opened the door. "Welcome to my humble abode. You can have the room that's down the hall, second door to the right. There's not a bed in there, but I'm a college student and basically broke. Don't go in the first door on the right unless you want to get beaned with some clay, and I don't like wasting it. It's expensive."

"Got it." Magnus followed Alex inside, looking around at the new place he would live in. That would be a huge adjustment, since he'd lived with his mom since forever and they'd decided that he should probably find a place with a friend for at least the rest of the year, or until his mom had healed. He would rather stay and take care of his mom, but she'd kicked him out to "go have fun with your friends without your mom around and be an irresponsible young person."

The appartement was small, but mostly organized. There was a small kitchen and a table strewn with papers that looked like homework. Down the hall there were four doors, the mysterious clay involved room on the right and the place where he would stay, and on the left was what was presumably Alex's room (he didn't go in) and a storage closet. Bathrooms were connected to the bedrooms.

Magnus turned toward Alex. "I really can't thank you enough for letting me stay with you."

Alex made a noncommittal noise. "Mhmmm, Yeah, well I owed Sam a favor. You can drop your stuff in there," he gestured to the empty bedroom, "but other than that, I don't care what you do, just preferably stay out of my way."

"I can pay rent, if you'd like," Magnus offered, "That way I'm not just living here on your dime."

"We can figure that out, tomorrow, maybe, I have stuff I need to finish today. One last thing," Alex stared at him, and Magnus felt like his soul was being examined, "I don't know what sort of memo you got, probably not much because Sam lets me explain my own things, but as of now unless I saw otherwise, I'm female. That is subject to change, and if you get it wrong I will have to correct you. If you ignore this on purpose because you're an asshole, I _will_ kick you out."

Magnus stared at her for a few seconds, completely mortified. Alex said nothing and merely raised an eyebrow, as if asking _Well? Are you going to be a decent person?_

Instead of a thoughtful apology for jumping to conclusions, what next came out of Magnus's mouth is, "Oh my god, I thought Sam had two half siblings named Alex. Wow, I'm an idiot."

Alex made a sound that _might_ in some universe count as a small laugh. "That remains to be seen." She said, sounding smug, "Hopefully you're not _too_ much of an idiot. I'll see you around."

She leaves him standing in the hall in favor of disappearing into the mysterious clay room.

Magnus immediately drops his backpack in his new room and heads to the grocery store.

* * *

When Alex emerged from her studio a few hours later, she was greeted with the sight of her new roommate in the kitchen, baking of all things.

"What in the world are you doing?"

Magnus jumped and whirled around, holding a spatula of something green, and Alex stared. _Was that frosting?_

He flushed and awkwardly rubbed his neck. "I'm making cupcakes, as an apology for jumping to conclusions earlier."

She blinked, taken off guard. That certainly had never happened before, but apology cupcakes were a better start than most in the terms of meeting new people. "Oh."

Magnus shrugged, looking more comfortable as he saw that she was just as at odds with the situation as he was. "Yeah. Anyways… uh… Hey, you want to help me frost?"

"Wait...frosting the cupcakes?"

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it…" Magnus silently extended a spoon, a look of extreme seriousness on his face.

Alex met his eyes and accepted the spoon, equally serious. "I shall not fail. Also, your hair is glowing."

The cupcakes were some of the best desserts she'd ever eaten.

* * *

Later…..

"Mom, this is my boyfriend, Alex."

"Oh! It is so nice to finally meet you! I wasn't sure what to do, so I just made some cupcakes, according to all of Magnus's other friends, they're really good, so I'm curious about what you think of them."

"...Maggie please tell me your mom taught you how to bake."

"...I can neither confirm nor deny anything."

"I'm pretty sure you have watched too many spy movies."


	3. The Mechanic and The Girl Who Dreamed

**Sorry this was late, I was really busy! Hope you enjoy this Lunar Chronicles thing!**

**In which Cinder is the one to rescue the pretty girl from the tower in this steampunk ish fantasy where the Lunar are fae.**

* * *

Cinder readied the grappling hook on the side of the ship, checking dials and calculating trajectory. In the background, Thorn was mending some of the sails of the Rampion that had ripped in recent storm. The airship had taken quite a battering, but luckily nothing was so damaged that they'd been forced to land, but it had been close. The gears in her left hand whirred faintly as she locked onto the target.

"It's all set."

Thorn didn't bother looking up. "You realize, we're not going to be able to get you out right?"

Cinder picked up the small crystal orb from where it was resting on top of a storage crate, cradling it in her hands. "_Yes,_ Thorn. We've gone over this. I'll go in, get out with Cress, and meet you at the nearest port to Farafah."

"And?"

"And if that doesn't work, you and Scarlet have already claimed the spot of flying in with guns blazing."

From somewhere above the deck, you could hear Scarlet's voice echo, "_Damn right!"_

Thorn stayed silent, and Cinder could tell he didn't like the plan, despite being one of the ones to come up with it. Apparently, Iko shared his sentiments, because her voice quietly trickled out of the small crystals spaced around the ship. "I don't really think this will work."

"It might, it might not," Cinder shrugged, "But at this point, it's the best plan we've got. Here," she set the heavy crystal orb in Thorn's lap as he made a small noise of protest, "We'll need that. Iko, make sure he doesn't break it?"

"Got it."

The hull of the ship vibrated as Iko slowly spread her grasp deeper into the ship, a fine blue haze seemingly covering everything for a minute before dissipating. "It should be fine now, even if he drops it."

"I'm not going to drop it," Thorn muttered, "I'm sitting in the floor, for goodness sakes."

Cinder ignored him and smiled at the nearest crystal set. "Nothing will go wrong Iko."

_Everything that could go wrong, _Cinder mused as she climbed the wildly swinging rope, _did go wrong._

* * *

She'd gotten dropped out of the bay doors in the hull of the Rampion, just below the suspended pod, and it had taken a while to make sure she wouldn't swing into the hazy white tendrils of magic that were supporting the pod. That had failed, because right after being dropped and starting to climb, she'd overcompensated and swung into the white. She'd only been in there for barely a second, but it had been one second too many, because now her left leg was completely fried. The pod had a look of being a pearly white tower, but with a closer look, it became clear that the white beams were pure energy. Thus, the fried circuitry.

_Just great. Note to self, _never _say that again._

Slowly, Cinder pulled herself up and continued to climb.

* * *

Cinder crashed in a pile of exhausted limbs onto the small observation deck, groaning. There were the sounds of something hurriedly being set down, and then a pair of bare feet and _very _long hair appeared in her field of vision.

"_Oh! _You're alright, right?" Cinder managed to lift her head to meet the face of the voice. _The girl from the scrying orb,_ her exhausted brain supplied, _Cress. _"Oh _stars above_, you're her, aren't you? The—" girl—Cress—cut herself off, eyes darting around the deck wildly.

"Yep," Cinder managed, the words coming out scratchy from her parched throat, "I'm definitely _her_."

She was _her_. Her, to be more specific, was Princess Selene Channary Jannali Blackburn, rightful heir to the Fae realm of Luna. Which was a whole other complicated mess in itself

"Oh thank the stars, I was getting worried, Mistress Sybil normally checks in in about an hour? I think? You really can't be here when she comes." Cress was babbling slightly, the unreleased worry and tension showing itself, but as the girl pushed a long lock of slightly disheveled hair behind her ear, Cinder really only had one thought. _Wow, she is seriously pretty._

With slight help from Cress, Cinder managed to stand and lean against the door to the observation deck after a minute or two. "_We _really shouldn't. The tether to Luna is practically nothing, but the one to Earth is dissolving, rather quickly."

Cress looked down through the glass of the deck and paled, taking in what Cinder had seen the entire way up. The tether that kept the pod anchored in between the mortal and fae realms also worked to keep them apart. If the tether to Earth snapped, Earth would rise up to meet them.

"I'll get everything I'll need packed up," Cress stepped away from Cinder, and she immediately felt the absence, "It shouldn't take me long, and we can leave before Mistress Sybil comes, or the tether snapped."

Of course, none of that mattered when the thaumaturge arrived in her sleek, steel airship and completely _severed_ the tether. None of that mattered, because now, they were falling.

* * *

"Well," Cinder stared at the ruined wreckage of the pod, "This sucks."

Next to her, Cress was shivering in the cool atmosphere of the Earthen afternoon, standing in the same thin, white dress from earlier, which did nothing to keep out the slight chill.

"Can you move any of it?" Cress's voice was hesitant, uncertain, like her whole world had been torn to shreds, "We should see if I can recover anything."

"I can certainly try."

Carefully, mindful of the swirling sand, Cinder reached out with her senses, finding the new pieces-that-did-not-belong in their surroundings. A thought sent the largest hunk of shredded steel that had been lying on top of the wreckage flying away. The next parts followed, and soon there was an opening that Cress would probably be able to crawl through.

The girl slipped in, and returned seconds later, holding a large and _cracked_ scrying orb in a bundle of sheets.

"This should still work," Cress admitted, running her hands over the damaged surface, "How well is the question. That was impressive uh—Cinder? I've never seen anyone with that much control."

Cinder flushed. "It's nothing. That's pretty much the extent of what I can do, I'm terrible at illusion and I hate even thinking about messing with feelings. Can you still scry?"

"There's very, very little here that I _cannot_ scry with," Cress stated wryly before fixing Cinder with a sharp stare, "And I think you're underconfident in your abilities. Most are overconfident, and we can't be _either_, understand?"

"Yeah," Cinder breathed. It was a little unsettling to find someone with such faith in her, so short after they'd met.

"It's not a big deal," Cress said, flushing a bit and turning away, "I'm just a shell, utterly worthless to them. Albeit the part where I'm by far their best scryer, I mean nothing. _You _however," she poked a finger into Cinder's sternum, "You mean everything."

Cinder nodded mutely. She didn't believe that; not yet, not this early. But knowing that the short girl with the longest hair she'd ever seen believed in her? That certainly meant something, though she had no idea what. First though….

"You know, Cress? If we want to get out of here quickly, we should probably cut your hair."

* * *

A few weeks later, after the thaumaturge Sybil Mira had tracked them down and been promptly defeated on the roofs of the Eastern Commonwealth palace and they'd escaped with a kidnapped emperor in tow, after Iko had finally gotten a real body, she was off excitedly screaming about it to anyone who would listen, Cress somehow had gotten Cinder away from everyone for a conversation.

"Thank you," was all Cress said, and Cinder stared at her, confused.

"Thanks? For what?" _Getting her out of the pod? That doesn't really count because I'm the reason it crashed. I've brought her, brought all of them into danger many more times than I've saved them, they've saved themselves._

Cress flushed, cheeks pinking, but smiled hesitantly. "For showing me what it's like to fall in love with someone."

"What?" Now it was Cinder's turn to flush, there seemed to be a lot of that lately, as comprehension sank in. "_Oh"._

"Yeah," Cress's gaze skipped towards the ground and Cinder gently took her hands.

"I guess I should thank you for the same thing then."

As Cress's eyes snapped up to hers with a beaming smile, Cinder felt herself match the grin.

And as the crew of the Rampion celebrated one of their few, precious victories, a mechanic and a girl who dreamed kissed for the very first time.

* * *

**On Iko: think something a bit like vision from marvel except more human looking because she's basically made a enchanted statue (like that one myth where Aphrodite turned a statue into a human) with a data crystal in her neck (+ blue hair, that's very important.)**


	4. Magic is a Spy's Best Friend

**Wow, I wrote this in like an hour and a half ish. go me!**

**The random details about Hermione and Pansy's friendships can be explained through ShanaStoryteller's awesome soulmate au _survival is a talent_ on ao3, its more plotty for a soulmate au and I wholeheartedly enjoy it, the character relationships are amazing, please go read it. Its not necessary to have read it, or read it, because the everything pretty much explains itself, but if you want to read what is really making up the backstories, go have fun.**

**Harry Potter (Pansmione)**

**In which Pansy and Hermione are spies who occaionally use magic and fight Death Eaters, but mostly just die over your feelings for your crush.**

* * *

Pansy's fingers flew across the keys of the computer, quickly copying files onto a small flash drive. Her watch pinged, and she cursed. Their target, a wealthy millionaire, coincidentally the host of the very gala they were at, had been suspected of diverting funds from his wildly successful charity and into his own bank account. That had just been proven true. And unfortunately, they didn't have enough time to gather all the evidence, because the same millionaire was making his way to his office at the moment. Which was where Pansy was currently sitting.

She disconnected the flash drive, yanked it out of the computer and stuffed it down the front of her dress, glancing at her watch, which was displaying the tracker they had on him. He was coming down the corridor about to turn the corner, but was far enough away that he wouldn't see her exit the office and only see her stumble "drunkenly" down the hall.

In a few short strides, Pansy exited the office, neatly shut the door behind her, looped her arm through her partner's who had been standing watch, and set off at a leisurely pace down the hall. A few seconds later, Corban Yaxley nodded to the pair with a smile as he passed them. After a few more moments, she allowed herself to breath again, but never to relax.

"That was too close." Pansy shutting out the feelings of electricity as her partner imperceptibly tightened her grasp on her arm.

"Lord give me patience, or an untraceable handgun," Hermione Granger, muttered as they slowly made their way to a balcony where they could sit in full view of the party below but not be heard. "Because I very much would like to put a bullet through his head. You, of all people, know what he's done. What he does still."

Pansy went silent, blocking out old memories. She could never understand why her father thought it had been a good idea to associate with him, but it had ended in his death. "I am aware."

The silence became uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," Hermione whispered, "That went too far."

"Yes," Pansy agreed. "It did."

Her father's murder was largely considered unremarkable. A dark deed by someone who wanted something out of the company and was denied it, at least, that's what the court case said. The night of the funeral, Pansy successfully hacked her father's work computer; and subsequently found out that he had broken ties with Yaxley's corporation for some unknown reason. And now, she finally knew why.

Hermione helped Pansy into a chair in the balcony, ever the appearance of a gracious partner, let the masses think what they will of _that, _before taking a seat herself, and Pansy allowed herself a moment to relinquish control of her feelings.

The other woman's dress was bright ruby red with a halter neck and a fine gold belt. There was a slit in the side of the skirt on both sides that went to just above the knee, which was surprising, as Hermione's fashion choices tended to be more on the side of refined foreign dignitary than up-and-coming celebrity. But none of that compared to Hermione's face, ruby and gold jewelry and gold makeup that performed a beautiful contrast with her dark skin and hair that was pinned back with more gold and rubies.

She took Pansy's breath away. She was very much in awe, and in love.

Pansy took a steadying breath and took back her feelings. The middle of an op was no place to think of your crush on your partner, no matter how long it had been there.

"We are not here to kill him."

Hermione rested her head on her hand, looking out over the balcony. "I am aware.

"We are here to get evidence for the legal team." Pansy smiled slightly, a thing filled with more cruelty than warmth. Their legal team had a tendency to destroy their opponents, and their lawyers, with very good one-liners. "Blaise and Harry will have fun raking this one over the coals."

Hermione gave a small laugh. "What do you bet Draco goes off ranting again after, while Harry just looks resigned in the background?"

"I'm still surprised he doesn't actually use his barrister license," Pansy muttered, "For all he talks about this sort of thing makes me wonder about his willingness that with the Weasley Terrors and Quinn can throw him at their chaos."

"You say that like Quinn needs any help causing chaos and like it's not what Fred and George do anyway."

"I'm pretty sure Draco does nothing to prevent the explosions, probably encourages the pursuit of "the science"."

"Only except when something he's working on has the possibility to get damaged."

That was true, Pansy had to admit. Her best friend was rather protective of his creations and charms, and had an unfortunate tendency to not sleep while in the process of making them. Then he tended to get even more insane ideas while sleep-deprived, further astounding everyone when they succeeded.

They had a few minutes of silence before Pansy interrupted again

"You might have to, you know."

It took Hermione a few seconds to connect the dots, and her eyes snapped up at Pansy. "What? Kill him?"

Pansy looked out over the crowd, not meeting Hermione's eyes. "In addition to being a generally horrible person who steals money from his own charity, he's also a bigot, racist, and elitist." The people in the ballroom below were laughing, dancing and generally looking like they were having a good time.

She stood, backing slightly into the shadows the decorative curtains of the balcony created. Hermione also stood, following her, as if the information could be made less terrible of it was shared in secrecy.

"He's," Pansy's voice dropped to barely a whisper, and Hermione leaned in straining to hear. You never knew where the bugs were, did you? She swallowed and started again. "Corruption weren't the only files I found. He's a member of the Death Eaters, we have orders from the Queen to bring them in, permission to do what we must to bring them down."

Hermione inhaled sharply, not a gasp, their instincts were too good, they _were_ spies after all, her hand going to the invisible wand holster on her wrist.

Pansy knew that the other woman had _history_ with the group, a result of becoming friends in the third year of their schooling. As a member of the New Magicals populace, the virtrol of the Death Eaters was especially directed at her, as they objected to the integration of Magical and Normal society. A large source of their bitterness was the inability to stop the Statute of Secrecy from lifting, at least in Britain. In the United States and Canada, it had been lifted for almost two maybe three decades.

"I could really go for that untraceable handgun right about now," Hermione admitted, stiffening slightly as she processed the information again.

"Well," Pansy lifted a hand to the small of her partner's back, just under where the low back of the dress ended. "You've got a tiny one right here."

Hermione pressed _just_ a tiny bit more into her space, gently brushing Pansy's short hair out of her face before resting a hand on her cheek. "I do."

Her eyes fluttered closed before murmuring, "What in the world are you doing?"

"Well," Hermione echoed Pansy and she opened her eyes to see the other woman with an interesting look on her face, "I rather like to think that I am about to kiss you."

"Oh," Pansy stared, dumbfounded. She hadn't actually thought that the feelings she had could possibly be returned, but, well, here they were. "Carry on then."

Hermione fleetingly smiled and placed her other hand on Pansy's cheek, before bringing her lips to meet Pansy's. Pansy snaked an arm around Hermione's waist and they stumbled up against the wall.

They stayed like that for a few minutes until their watches beeped at the same time and they broke apart, flushed. The voice of Ginny Weasley, who Draco had accurately dubbed the Terrifying One much to the girl's glee, came out from the watches in a dissonant echo.

"If you're all good, we've just heard through the bug you placed in the office that Yaxley is escaping and also planning to blow this joint. Don't know why, waste of money. If you hurry, you'll catch him before he reaches his helicopter."

Hermione paled and rushed to the balcony before shouting, the voice modifier that Ginny must have activated on the watch changing her voice into the lower register of a man's, "EVERYONE PROCEED OUT AND DOWN THE BLOCK IMMEDIATELY! THEY HAVE JUST RECEIVED WARNING OF A POTENTIAL BOMB THREAT!"

Everyone in the ballroom started screaming as they rushed for the doors, but Pansy paid them no heed as she sprinted towards the roof, Hermione hot on her heels, still buzzing from the kiss.

They made it to the roof access door with seconds to spare, Hermione pulling out her mini pistol as Pansy _kicked_ the bolted door down, which was no match for a woman in charmed heels.

Yaxley must have saw them, because he leaped into the helicopter and took off, slowly ascending to get the copter clear of the roof.

Those few precious seconds were all that Hermione needed to shoot, and barely a half second later, Yaxley slumped across the controls, sending the helicopter crashing into the expansive garden, which was in the process of being relandscaped, right before it exploded.

Hermione grinned and pushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. "I'd call that a successful mission."

Pansy grinned in response.

"Definitely," she took Hermione's hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles, "But I really think he's going to need a new garden."

They had disappeared before the police showed up, leaving a perfectly clean pistol behind.

* * *

"the perks of ancient runes," says ginny later, "am i right? anyone agree with me? _thank you luna_, good to know some people have sense."

* * *

**Also, I don't really ship anything in particular, so please be respectful of everone's views, and I'd like to avoid flames and hate.**

**Please leave a review if there's something you'd like to see in one of these future shorts, please vauge ideas only, like stuff for fantasy, superhero, modern, soulmate au stuff (I think there's at least one planned, but I could make it the 'many ways to find a soulmate' trope), vampire shenanigins, or shenanigans in general, like please add dragons to something modern, because we need more modern dragon stuff, and I will do my best to add it! Not doing ship requests, because its all been planned out, but go wild on what you want to see in the background details! **

**Please tell me what you thought, it makes my day to know people actually like this.**


	5. There's a Fire, Burning In My Soul

**Have some WaterFire Saga stuff. I didn't get everything I wanted in this one, but oh well. **

**(mermaids/pretty canon complaint, don't need to know any of it/soulmates/also magic weapons)**

**somehow I've gotten hooked on this ship, so have some Serafina/Astrid (or as I like to call them, Sastrid) **

* * *

Astrid was sitting on the pier with her sketchbook, idly drawing series of buildings of Ondalina after giving up on attempting to draw the Icelandic mountains in the horizon, when the mer had showed up and pushed herself up onto the pier.

She'd actually seen them a few minutes before, and had decided to leave her be. The mer was staring at her curiously, and Astrid barely refrained from rolling her eyes. It was like she'd never seen a human up close before.

Not that she was anything like a human. But at the moment, Astrid wriggled her toes, she _did_ have feet.

After a few minutes, the mer painstakingly shifted into a more human form, blue-green dress swirling around her knees with a delicate rapier on her hip . Yep, she was definitely here for the whole Council of Six Waters and inter-realm relations summit. That dress was _way_ to fancy for any regular tailor's shop.

Then, the mer had the absolutely brightest idea to _try standing up_. Needless to say, she immediately stumbled, and Astrid almost pitched her sketchbook into the sea trying to prevent the girl from face-planting on the dock.

The girl swayed from where Astrid was holding onto her waist, and her grip on Astrid's elbows had her wincing.

_I severely doubt that she's been on land much before now,_ Astrid sighed heavily, _because this could very well end up a disaster._

Once the girl was relatively steady, Astrid released her and picked up her sketchbook, shoving it into her jacket, before running a hand over her face.

"Dune Sea shining! Have you ever been on land before now?" It was not the first time she had used her chosen Words as a curse, the first thing you said to your soulmate couldn't be something as mundane as "hello" or "excuse me" or "what on earth were you thinking" no matter the tone, but it _was_ the first time she'd ever had anyone react to them in the few years since they'd appeared on everyone and forced the Integration and some scientists had the bright idea to have everyone come up with a unique phrase to prevent confusion.

"Well," the girl said hesitantly, before her expression turned a bit panicked, "No! I've never actually been to the Mariana Trench!"

Astrid would have laughed at her expression if her reaction to meeting people shortly after her soulwords had come in hadn't been very similar. Also if those words weren't printed on the inside of her left wrist.

As it was, she extended a hand for the girl—her soulmate!—to shake. "Are you here for the summit? I'm Astrid."

"Yeah," the girl shook her hand. "My name's Serafina. That's a interesting coincidence, I have a friend also named Astrid." She paused, "Please tell me you're not human?"

Astrid narrowed her eyes. Although the mer could shift human form for varying periods of time since shortly before the Integration, just about when soulwords started appearing, there still was prejudice among the older and more traditional that preferred to keep the worlds separate. "Why? You're not against integration, are you?"

"What? No!" Serafina tucked a long, wet strand of brown hair behind her ear. "It's just complicated. Humans can't live undersea all the time or in deeper pressures, and I kinda… need that… in a relationship?"

"Oh. _Oh my god,_" Astrid's breath caught slightly in realization. "You're _that _Serafina! Sera! I didn't recognize you! You cut your hair again, really short. Also I doubt I've ever seen you in a dress."

Serafina's eyes widened, and it all made a bit more sense. Serafina di Merrovíngia, Regina of Miromara, wouldn't be able to just adjust the entire layout of the entire palace for one human, and although there were spells that would allow humans to live underwater for short periods of time, there was no way to cohabitate full time. Although, in recent years structures reaching the surface for that sole purpose were becoming more common.

"Astrid!" Sera exclaimed and seized her in a tight hug, burying her face in her shoulder. "I'm embarrassed, it's official. I didn't recognize you, just because I wasn't expecting it and your hair is up in braids. Which I don't think I've seen you in before."

Astrid patted her on the shoulder with her hand that wasn't pinned by Sera's arms. "It's alright, I didn't recognize you either. I haven't actually seen you in person since before the Integration, wow, that's almost three and a half years, and you've always worn very fancy outfits or tactical gear with very little in between, sooo…"

"Wow, this is awkward," Sera mumbled into her shoulder, "I'm very bad at this."

"That's alright," Astrid said, as she was released. "What's up with everyone else? I don't think I've talked with anyone other than Becca last week? But she's here so... for the past month or so, it's all been very busy." And like researchers had figured out early on, the words only counted if it was face to face.

Sera hesitantly looped their arms together, and then practically fell on her for support as they started walking. "Tell me about it. Neela is fine, we got in with Mahdi, Yazeed, and Des yesterday on one of those semi-submersible boats? I'm pretty sure that's what they're called. Anyway, Ava should be showing up sometime soon, along with Manon Laveau, who's apparently been elected to be the americas' freshwater ambassador. Ling is coming with the President of Qin, and I think Becca, Marco, and Elisabetta have been here for at least a week as the "experts" on human-mer relations, but I'm pretty sure that that's only because their family has known about us since Merrow."

She stumbled against Astrid again, and Astrid had them sit down on the nearest bench. "Please explain why you were swimming, _alone,_ while you should probably be learning to use feet?"

"I thought I had yesterday! And well, I just wanted to see what it was like here."

Astrid stared at her flatly. "It took me at least a week to get a hang of shifting and immediately walking with minor stumbling, and I've been here for almost over a month now."

Sera sighed and rubbed at her calves, which if Astrid remembered correctly, would be just starting to become sore. "So there's no chance I'm going to be able to wear those things called heels tomorrow like Neela wants me to."

"Nope."

"Dang it," she straightened, staring out over the dark sea like she could see all the way back to Miromara, "I thought I was over this since the deal with the Italian ambassadors. Thank goodness I'll be able to sit down for this at least."

"Yeah," Astrid slowly smiled as a thought occurred to her, "It's a good thing Alítheia didn't try to show up as a guard like she did with the meeting with the Greeks."

"Please don't remind me, I'm just thankful that she decided to and I quote "watch all the children" than try to hitch a ride on the semi-submersible."

"I feel like Coco is behind that."

"You feel correctly then, it's amazing how many small children find a giant mechanical spider "cool"."

"I bet there's _lots_ of mechanical engineers who will think the same thing once they find out about her." Looking down the dock to a nearby street, Astrid saw another figure with a similar, half-drunk looking walk. She nudged Sera in the side. "Is that Neela?"

When Sera nodded excitedly, Astrid flagged her over.

"I've officially given up on zee-zees." Neela announced, collapsing onto the bench on Sera's other side. "Also I've discovered leather jackets, and let me tell you, they are wonderful."

"Dune Sea shining to you too."

Neela looked no different than every other time Astrid had seen her, which meant wearing something completely different than the last time. Now, it was a high necked black-and-nude striped shirt, high waisted black pants and impossibly high heels for someone had just shifted the previous day. The only accessory that didn't change was the Askari armband from her cousin Kora.

Neela snapped her fingers excitedly, before gesturing in between Astrid and Sera. "That's—right? Sera?"

She nodded shyly, a far cry from the powerful regina, eyes flickering over to Astrid before embracing her friend. "We figured it out about five minutes ago."

Neela nodded. "Okay, cool! Now the question is, how did we not figure this out sooner?"

Astrid shrugged. "I don't think anyone really wanted to discuss the strange words appearing, and if anyone shared what they were, promptly forgot about everyone else's in favor of coming up with weird phrases, unless they'd had a face to face conversation and the words matched. And I don't think people really figured out the whole face to face thing until later on so no one really thought it anything matched up, because I don't remember anyone sharing phrases or stuff like that."

"Me neither."

"I also think," Sera added, "that it all got caught up in the sudden manifesting of the weapons of everyone above twenty-one." Her hand went to the rapier at her hip. "How anyone figured out that these are quite literally the perfect weapons for their bearers is beyond me, especially since most people in general don't use things like these."

"I, for one," Neela drew her sword, "think that it is totally rad that most of us all got swords of some sort. I've got the coral and dragon fang sword, Kora freaked out about that by the way, it was great. Sera, you've got that court type sword that says anyone who gets in your way will be destroyed, with their reputation in shreds, which is totally fair. And Astrid, you're practically already a Viking princess, so hey! Fancy I-will-mess-up-your-face-sword for you!"

"Put like that," Astrid said wryly, "Anything makes sense."

"Yup, guys, I'm exhausted, so let's go find Becca and co. and drag 'em to relax in the hot springs with us."

"That sounds like a good plan," Sera stood up and immediately latched on to Astrid's shoulders for balance, "It's been too long since we've all gotten together."

Astrid stood up and hesitantly laced their fingers together, still not entirely sure what to do with the bombshells that had been dropped that day. "I couldn't agree more."

* * *

Regina Serafina di Merrovíngia walked into the meeting room the next day that was filled with world leaders and reporters from all over the world wearing four-inch heels.

Astrid had no idea how she could do that, but attributed it to Neela working some sort of magic.

They still had no idea what they were going to do about the tentative bond of magic between them, but as Astrid saw the courage and determination in Serafina's eyes as she walked in that room and was immediately bombarded with questions, she knew that they'd figure it out. Eventually.

* * *

**Astrid and Sera get together at somepoint and it's fluff.**

**I wrote this like Sera/Mahdi and Astrid/Des never happened, but like, if you want to have Sera/Mahdi/Astrid and mostly stick to canon, have fun, and its subtext! **

**hope you all liked this, and please review.**


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